Tracking renewable energy data

How are Midwestern power producers performing in meeting the renewable energy goals of their states?

Pretty well as it turns out. “The recession occurred, our loads are down, so there’s a surplus of renewable energy,” said Amy Fredregill, executive director St. Paul-based Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System or M-RETS. “No one has any problem complying. And everyone is producing a lot of renewables.”

Fredregill ought to know how the Midwest is performing because for the past two years she has managed M-RETS, a two-person shop known mainly to state regulators, utilities and energy wonks.

The nonprofit, which has a $1 million budget, uses data provided by St. Paul-based Midwest Independent System Operator, or MISO, to determine how well energy providers are doing in meeting each state’s “renewable portfolio standard,” or RPS, she explained.

The nonprofit, created in 2008 by utilities, public policy advocates and regulators, covers nine states and Manitoba and has more than 165 “account holders” who buy annual subscriptions.

It was originally a concept proposed by think tanks and state regulators who thought having an independent nonprofit monitor renewable energy production was a better idea than using existing government or quasi-government agencies, said Eric Schroeder, who helped found M-RETS and works as deputy director of the Great Plains Institute in Minneapolis.

Ten years ago, Great Plains initially helped lead discussions on the idea that the Midwest should have a regional renewable energy standard. But that did not pass muster. A nonprofit to monitor each state’s progress, however, gained traction.

“There was a consensus that we needed one system to be able to validate renewable energy production and to be able to trade renewables in a market system,” he said.

As states passed renewable standards, M-RETS moved from concept to reality. Utilities, state agencies and renewable energy companies join the organization and gain access to reports and important information, he said. Several corporations not usually associated with energy production — Google, Morgan Stanley Capital Group, United Steel among them — also have joined M-RETS to validate investments they have made in energy production.

Not being part of a government of regional regulatory agency has advantages.

“Having an independent regional organization with baseline requirements for data reporting and verification helps to ensure the integrity of the information we rely on,” said Deb Erwin, president of the M-RETS board of directors and the program and policy supervisor at the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin.

In an email, Erwin explained that M-RETS offers a way to check on the progress that utilities located across state boundaries are making to meeting renewable energy standards. “It is also more efficient for regulators and interested stakeholders to establish one set of rules for data reporting to use throughout the region than to do that state by state,” she said.

M-RETS tracks only renewable production and not carbon emissions because none of the Midwest states has a carbon policy, Fredregill said. The nonprofit’s revenue comes from annual subscription fees — ranging from $100 to $2,000 — and additional charges based on activity in the M-RETS registry, she added.

The nonprofit creates reports for each utility subject to renewable goals and then makes them available to account holders and state agencies. In Minnesota, for example, the reports go to the Department of Commerce, which in turn sends the results to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

The measurement of renewable energy is made in one megawatt hour segments known as RECs, or “renewable energy certificates.” (About 10 megawatt hours would power a house for a year.) RECs can be bought and traded on the open market so a utility could conceivably buy enough of them to meet their requirements without actually producing any renewable power, said Fredregill.

Renewable energy certificates are eligible for as long as state law allows, usually no more than three years.

Some states allow hydropower as a renewable energy or they allow only small and new hydro production within a certain size limit, she said. Some states also permit waste burning and clean coal production in their renewable goals.

Renewable energy certificates can used to fulfill renewable state mandates or sold to other account holders. Despite having a platform for the sale of the certificates, Schroeder said their sales have been most often managed privately between utilities and buyers outside of the M-RETS system.

The voluntary market

The fastest growing segment for M-RETS is called the voluntary market. These companies, which represent about 25 percent of M-RETS’s revenue, have no mandate to produce renewable energy yet they want to validate marketing claims and reach sustainability goals, Schroeder said.

“It’s easier for them to track the RECs through us,” she said. “My understanding is the marketplace is driven largely by corporate social responsibility goals, consumer polling and interest. They’re doing it for a reason.”

Federal government reports suggest the voluntary oversight market grows 19 percent annually, she said. As her organization grows, new account holders will likely come from the voluntary market.

Fredregill came to M-RETS after serving as executive director of the St. Paul-based Cooperative Network, a trade association representing cooperatives in many industries in Minnesota and Wisconsin. She also worked in the U.S. Senate as a legislative aide and as a staffer at the Isaac Walton League.

The nonprofit’s success comes in part as a result of a collaboration of private businesses and government entities.

“We’re truly a public-private partnership; we are the poster child for that,” she said. “These stakeholders came together, created a tool, which is us.”